Sprint joins Net race

Published on August 26, 1996.

By Kim Cleland

Sprint Corp. may be the last of the big three long-distance
carriers to offer a consumer Internet access product, but it's
hardly far behind.

Sprint last week introduced Internet Passport, a service
it will market to its 15 million-customer base. After a
one-month test among 200,000 of its customers, Sprint will in October
start charging $19.95 per month for unlimited use, or $1.50 per
hour.

Sprint is also expected to announce next month a major
distribution partner for the software.

"This alliance will really open the doors for us," said
Harry Campbell, assistant VP-marketing at Sprint Multimedia.
"We'll be doing lots of broadscale marketing to acquire
customers."

While AT&T Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. offer their
own products, Sprint has focused on providing the backbone
connection to other service providers.

AT&T suffered technical problems after the March launch
of its WorldNet but currently boasts more than 300,000
subscribers. MCI's internetMCI has been on the market for almost two
years.

"We've taken time to study the strategies employed by and
problems encountered by our competitors," Mr. Campbell said.
"Before launching we knew the back office had to be completely in
place--customer service, billing, processing and distribution."